Acer Aspire One AOD150 Review

The previous 8.9 inch Acer Aspire One was a real hit in the netbook market and now it gets even better with a 10.1 inch display with a price tag below any other standard netbooks in the market. We have been a fan of Asus Eee PC netbooks for their meager prices bundled with nifty performance and features. Is it the time for Asus to recalculate its netbook market dominance with a strong competitor like Acer Aspire One? We have made a review to find the answer. Let’s get into it.

Design and Build Quality

On the design, the new Acer Aspire One AOD150 won’t win any prizes and its looks like any other standard netbook available in the market. The edges are rounded and the lid is glossy and you can choose from four color options available : navy blue, white, black and red. The palm rest has a brushed metal coating which doesn’t catch fingerprints like the original Acer Aspire One. The hinges are also changed with a new teardrop shaped metallic hinge with the color that matches the lid. The size of 10.2X8.0X1.3 inches makes it look like any ther 10 inch netbook available in the market. The weight of 2.8 pounds is also like any average netbook in the market.

Processor, RAM and HDD

The system uses the common 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 Processor like all other competitors in this field. The system also comes with a 1GB RAM which provides nice performance. The speed felt above the average performance of netbooks but nothing more than that. Surfing Web using firefox 3 with more than five tabs open and listening to music at the same time was no problem. The 5400 rpm 160 GB is also fast and perhaps it is the fastest as far as netbooks are concerned.

Graphics

The systems integrated graphics performance was not very good keeping in mind the netbook standards. Though it nicely plays a YouTube Video but we noticed frame drops and jittery quality when playing a HD Video. But as long as you are working with the web browser and word documents it will do more than enough.

Display

The display is a glossy 10.1 inch LED backlit 1024 X 600 resolution display. We are very much accustomed to screens of this size. The webpages and the windows fitted nicely in the display. Colors were nice and bright and the horizontal/vertical viewing angles were also good. However, the display glare was very distracting under bright light but we faced same problem also with higher priced glossy laptop displays, so there is nothing to complain about for a laptop of this price tag.

Keyboard

The keyboard size seems to be the same as the original Aspire One which we liked very much. But we have to keep in mind that the original aspire one was 8.9 inch and this is a 10 inch netbook. The old keyboard did not leave any space on its sides but this one does. Acer could have tried to make the keyboard a bit larger especially when there are tough competitors in this 10 inch segment like the HP Mini 2140 which has a very nice spacious keyboard. However the keyboard is comfortable to type on and the keys gave good response and nice feedback.

TouchPad

The touchpad was also disappointing. It is very small at 1.6 inches and the mouse buttons were also not up to the mark. The mouse button is combined to a single piece of plastic like the volume rocker button of any mobile. The button was very stiff to press and sometimes it even did not register the clicks to add to the annoyance.

Audio, WebCam and Microphone

The less we talk about the audio, the better it would be. The speakers are located at the bottom of the system and produces very tinny sound. The speakers can only be used for a voice call over Skype. Get a decent pair of headphones to enjoy best quality music. The 0.3 MP Webcam is there that does its job but the video appeared a bit darker. The microphone is nice and is quite good at catching up the voices.

Ports

The port configuration remains mostly the same as the original Aspire One. There are 3 USB Ports, a VGA Port, Ethernet, headphone and microphone jacks. There is only one media card reader slot on the right side.

Battery Life

The standard system comes with a 4,400 mAh 6 cell battery which is able to run the system for more than six hours in normal mode and expect it to run for more than four hours under high workload condition and the screen brightness cranked up. To compare with its competitors, the system battery longevity is not the best but it outlasts many older systems.

Pros

• Very affordable price tag


• Speedy hard drive


• Slim Construction

Cons

• Keyboard a bit cramped for a 10 inch netbook


• Touchpad buttons are not comfortable


• Bluetooth not included

Conclusion

At price under $350 the Acer Aspire One AOD150 is obviously gives the value for the money spent. The slim and stylish design, nifty performance means you won’t get a better one even from ASUS in this price range. If you can pay the price we would suggest you to go for HP Mini 2140 or Asus Eee PC 1000 HE.